Bertram2 said:
I've read it but I don't think this solves any problem tho.
Betram, I think you misunderstood the intention of the note. It's not something that can solve any problems. What it can do, though, is a) give the photog a little backbone and b) can possibly defuse an otherwise ackward situation. If not, at least it gives you time to make like a banana and split.
🙂
Shyness as a personal character trait is not the only reason to feel inhibited about shooting strangers on the street.
There is still the question of personal dignity and the right of the human object to say "NO!".
I don't care whether people have the right to say NO or not. I have the right to take photos in public, and if I choose to use that right, and I'm not breaking any other laws, there's no need for people to go all furious and demand I delete the photo or hand over the roll (which they have no right to do in the first place). The note will explain them, in rather friendly terms, that there are more photos of them floating around than they care to know, and I don't see them make any huge fuss about that. I know it's easier to pick on the small guy but that doesn't mean I have to give in to that pressure.
So if you point with the camera on somebody in a way which makes him recognize he will not be simply an irrelevant detail of your "composition" but rather an important part of it he has the right to say no.
In the street he does not have the right to say NO, at least not where I live. And there's no way he can read any "intent" from my lifting the camera to my eye, as he can't read any "intent" from all those security cameras hanging everywhere. I used to be a security guard and I know those cameras can and are used for horny (or simply bored) security guards to peek into women's décolletées. Is that the "intent" of those cameras, or mine?
And if he is not interested in listening to my explanations or reading any "letter of intentions" I have to give him the film. And that's it.
No, that's not "it". People have to get off their arses and start to show some backbone, not just the photog but also the person who feels offended by my shooting. Our lives are recorded from moment of birth to the moment we die, and nearly every single event inbetween. If you feel so damn worried about what happens to your face on a photo I took then you should start to feel really damn worried about all that recording that is going on without your consent and knowledge and to which you can't do a bl**dy thing. Like I said, it's easy to pick on the small guy.
Once I myself opened the back of another guy's camera. He wasn't tall enuff for the cheeky anwer he gave me when I asked him the WTF question.
I'm not big but you wouldn not have gotten away with that with me, my friend.
🙂 I would have gotten the police involved and have you arrested for assault and destruction of private property. Let the criminal court sort you and your behaviour out. And the nice thing is, it won't even cost me a dime as it isn't a civil law suit.
I can image people don't want their picture taken but out in the street I simply don't give a hoot. If I were to consider everyone's feelings and try not to offend or upset anyone, I might just as well crawl into my grave and close the lid myself. I have no such plans, so I shoot to my heart's content. And if anyone has a problem with that, so be it. I'm not going to reason with them. If they are unwilling to let the matter go, they get the note. That's the end of the the story for me. If they want to continue it with aggression or violence (which with my photography has yet to happen, BTW) there's always the judicial system.
